On Truth and Falsity

          The Reality that the Skeptics cannot Avoid

The skeptics contend that because different persons have different responses to their environment, that no one can tell what the true nature of reality could be. They contend that because some people can take poison without hurt, and some can endure hardship and pain much better than others, and that different persons just respond to their environment in different ways, then that proves that no one can know that which is real. The skeptics seem to believe if reality exists, it has to be constant and unvarying for every person, and therefore, every person would respond to reality in the same way. The skeptics were right to assert that every person lives in a different environment, that every person is an individual with individual fingerprints, and as modern science has discovered, individual DNA. In other words, every individual comprises different systems which causes each one of them to have different responses to their environment based on their genetics, the way they were raised, and the influences of the society in which they live.

But none of that has anything to do with reality. Reality consists in however a person responds to his environment. How does a person think and act, and what does a person choose to do? If a group of persons design and build a square tower, then that tower is really square. If a healthy person tastes honey that is sweet, then that honey is really sweet because that ordinary sensation adds to the overall knowledge that humans need in order to make progress toward a better society for all. If a sick person has the real sensation of "bitter" when he tastes honey, that false system does not contribute to the advancement of real knowledge. Reality is something which every person advances toward, and which every person already experiences. Persons who respond to their environment by devising systems that harm others possess a greatly diminished realty because they misuse their knowledge of reality. Persons who try to devise systems that will cause others to care about the welfare of their fellow humans, and thereby become better persons themselves so that humanity as a whole will become better, possess a much better grasp on reality. When Socrates argued with the Sophists, he tried to get them to realize that they needed to be good and moral persons who cared about others instead of  just wanting to win arguments. This is what all good dogmatists try to do. Dogmatists try to raise the consciousness of all humans to a better reality where all humans can live together in peace and harmony.

The existentialists are right. Everything depends on what every person chooses to do with their lives. And every person should be honest enough to take the responsibility for what they do with their lives. The person who devises harmful systems that hurt others should manfully take his punishment. The person who devises systems that try to help others becomes a better person themselves and should take joy in his attempt to bring everyone into a higher reality. A lack of knowledge and wisdom is a diminished reality. Reality is a progression toward better lives for all humans and that requires real knowledge.

Reality consists of taking the real sense objects and thought objects that one experiences and formulating them into real and useful systems that benefit others. If sense objects and thought objects were not real, then that progression would be impossible. Unreality consists of misusing real sense objects and thought objects to formulate false systems that cannot advance real knowledge. Unreality can be deliberate as when a person formulates harmful systems, or it can be accidental such as mistakes in arithmetic. But humans never directly experience unreality. Humans only experience true and real sense objects and thought objects that they can formulate into true systems or false systems. When humans discover that a system is false, they use the real and useful idea of nothing to recognize that it is false and indirectly recognize that it is unreal so that it can be usefully discarded, but they never directly experience unreality. Humans cover unreality with the idea of nothing.

When the skeptics called the dogmatists a "self-loving class of men," they judged them as being arrogant. pb.OP p. 43. Whenever a person makes a judgment, they cannot avoid considering that system to be real. A system cannot be anything else than that which it is judged to be. Every judgment has to be truly real or truly false. The skeptics judged the dogmatists to be the system called "arrogant" and nothing else. The skeptics assumed a reality in their judgment. But in making this judgment, the skeptics actually devised a false system because the good dogmatists do not consider themselves to be better than others. They only devise true systems that help others devise their own true systems. Yet, in their formulation of their false system, the skeptics could only use true and real sense objects and thought objects. "Self-loving" is real. "Class" is real. "Men" are real, Not only that, but some people are really "arrogant." For all of their supposed suspension of judgment as to what is real and unreal, the skeptics cannot avoid formulating false systems that they consider to be real and which always comprise real words that have real meanings.